


Shy Guy

by aliceylain



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-15
Updated: 2011-10-15
Packaged: 2017-10-24 15:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliceylain/pseuds/aliceylain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kaidoh makes a friend! Or so thinks Konjiki Koharu.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shy Guy

"Uho! Bandana-kun, wait up! Hey, hey, Kaoooru-chan!"

Kaidoh flinched at the entrance to the yakiniku restaurant and edged away as one of the Shitenhouji freaks ran up beside him. "Don't call me that."

"But it's your name, Kaoru-chan! Do you want me to call you Viper instead?" Koharu grinned. "I could wear a wig and contacts if it would make you feel better? I'm not Yuu-kun but I like wigs."

This guy was ridiculous. "I don't want you calling me anything at all," Kaidoh said, edging away a little more.

"Oh, Kaoru-chan!" Koharu said, clasping his hands and fluttering his eyes from behind his glasses. "I need to say something to get your attention. And Kaoru-chan has such a lovely ring to it."

"No, it doesn't. Stop saying it so much." Kaidoh frowned. "And you're not going to see me again. We beat your team."

"Not seeing you again? But we have a special connection now, having played each other during the semi-finals! It's not something I can just ignore, this special connection."

Was this guy flirting with him? "Are you flirting with me?" Kaidoh demanded as they approached the restaurant tables.

"You noticed?" Koharu flung an arm around Kaidoh and Kaidoh clenched his fists. "Sooo perceptive!"

"Konjiki Koharu?"

Koharu pulled away at his name and Kaidoh relaxed, inwardly relieved. Inui-senpai had come to his rescue.

"Yes, Inui-kun?" Koharu said, adjusting his round glasses. "Is there something _wrong_?"

Inui-senpai looked slightly amused and Kaidoh got a bad feeling. "I wanted to discuss with you the possibility of you providing me with some information."

"Oh, really?" A sly smile spread over Koharu's face. "About what exactly, Inui-kun? What could you possibly be interested in that you think I'd willingly tell you?"

A smile spread over Inui-senpai's face too. "I'm always looking for more data on my teammates. Perhaps you could be persuaded to elaborate on a few particulars from today's match."

Koharu's glasses flashed, turning opaque. "Maaaaybe. I'm always willing to talk. I'm a very open-minded guy, after all."

Kaidoh tightened his hands into fists again. Stupid data players and their stupid data fetish.

♥ ♥ ♥

"Kaaaooooruuu-chaaa-"

Kaidoh immediately hung up the phone he had picked up.

"Kaoru? Who was that?" his mother called from the kitchen.

"Wrong number," Kaidoh answered as the phone rang again.

"Would you like me to answer it this time?"

"No!" Kaidoh snatched the phone up before his mother could. "Don't call me," he hissed.

"You knew it was me right away!" Koharu said. "You're getting to know me so well!"

"I'm not getting to know you at all. Leave me alone." Kaidoh started to hang up again but stopped. "How did you get my number?"

Koharu laughed. "Inui-kun is a very accommodating person when there's something he wants. I got it that night after our match with your team."

Kaidoh was going to kill his senpai. "Well, forget you know it and leave me alone."

"Oh, I can't do _that_. What if I want to know the weather in Tokyo? Who would I call?"

"You would watch the weather report."

"Accurate conditions are important, Kaoru-chan, and no one's more accurate than someone who's there!"

"Fine. You want weather? It's sunny and warm. Are you satisfied?"

Koharu laughed again. "Not at all, since I'm not calling you for the weather today. I'm calling you to set up a date!"

"A...a what?"

"A date, Kaoru-chan. A meeting by two people at a mutually-agreed location in order to carry out an activity."

"I know what a date is. Don't you have a boyfriend?" Kaidoh asked, covering his face with his free hand in embarrassment. "That guy who wore the mask?"

"Oh, Yuu-kun," Koharu said dismissively. "He is such a smothering person. I need my freedom, you know? I bet _you_ would let me have my freedom."

"Yes," Kaidoh responded immediately. "So much freedom that I don't even want to see you."

"See? I knew you'd understand! So you'll meet me at the street courts near Fudomine this weekend? I'll be in Tokyo."

"No," Kaidoh said. He slammed the phone down and waited. When it rang yet again, he snatched up the receiver and bit out, "I mean it."

"Kaoru, what is going on with the phone?"

"Nothing. It's fine, don't worry-" Kaidoh said but it was too late. His mother picked up the extension in the other room.

"Hello? Who is this calling?"

"Is this Kaidoh-san? This is Konjiki Koharu from Shitenhouji." Koharu sounded far too cheerful. "I met your son at Nationals. We had a good time together."

"You did?" His mother sounded cheerful too. "I'm always telling Kaoru that he needs to make more friends."

"Oh yes! I really want to be good friends with Kaidoh-kun. In fact, I was trying to convince him to play some tennis with me this weekend. But you know how he is, he wants to train instead."

Kaidoh's bad feeling was back again but worse than before. "It's not just training. I have...homework. A big project in science. Inui-senpai said he'd help me with it. I promised I'd meet him." Kaidoh didn't care that he was lying to his mother. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Oh, Kaoru." His mother sighed, sounding reproachful. "An hour to spend time with your new friend wouldn't hurt."

"But Kaidoh-san, if Kaidoh-kun has such a big project, I don't want to ruin his grades." Koharu sounded perfectly concerned now, instead of cheerful. Kaidoh's fingers curled around the phone cord and squeezed. "School is very important, after all."

"If he can spend hours running and doing exercises in that river, he can spend an hour or two with a friend," Kaidoh's mother said firmly.

Kaidoh tried again. "But I was also going to do something with Inui-senpai after he helped me. He asked me to and I said yes. I don't know how long it will take."

"I'm sure Inui will understand if you have to leave early. Maybe he could go with you to play some tennis too? Kaoru, you have a new friend wanting to spend time with you. Make the right decision, like I know you always do." After Kaidoh muttered an agreement, his mother said, "It was nice talking to you Konjiki-kun! I hope you have a good time this weekend."

After she had hung up, Kaidoh hissed. "That was cheating."

"It's not! I didn't know she was going to pick up," Koharu said. "So, how about this Sunday, Kaoru-chan. Unless you're _busy_ with Inui-kun, of course. I could call him for you to schedule time away from your sometimes doubles partner. I know you would never lie to your mother."

"Sunday's fine, cheater."

♥ ♥ ♥

"Kaaoruuuu-chan!"

Kaidoh showed up at the street courts near Fudomine, his tennis bag slung over his shoulder. He didn't usually like the street courts much; training by himself was more useful and he usually didn't risk running into annoying people. Annoying like the stupid guy waving at him from the far end of the courts.

"Kaoru-chan!" Koharu shouted again and Kaidoh reluctantly walked over.

As Kaidoh got closer, he saw that most of the other players were from no-name schools or Fudomine and St. Rudolph. But he could see Momoshiro's ridiculous hairstyle and over to the side, Fuji sat with his brother. Fuji had a camera.

Kaidoh wondered if his bad feeling was ever going to leave.

Koharu was standing, a tennis bag in his hands and another at his feet. "Nice show of skin, Kaoru-chan," he said, looking up and down at Kaidoh's tank-top and shorts. "And you're right on time! It's almost our turn, we get the next free court."

"Kaoru-chan?" Kamio pulled one of his earbuds to his music player out of his ear and stared at Kaidoh. "Did he just call you Kaoru-chan? And what was that about skin?"

"No," Kaidoh said, glaring. "And nothing."

"Me and Kaoru-chan are _good_ friends. Ask his mother, she thinks so," Koharu said to Kamio.

"He met your mother?" Momoshiro had been watching the duck guy and the ribbon guy play against each other but now he was snickering at Kaidoh. "What, are you dating now, Viper?

"I said we were good friends," Koharu said before Kaidoh could respond with a fist in Momoshiro's face. "He's so shy-shy, he's not ready for anything more."

"That guy? Shy?" Kamio took out his other earbud and snorted. "Yeah, right."

Koharu winked. "Kaoru-chan is a sensitive soul. He needs a lot of encouragement to trust someone."

"Shut up!" Kaidoh said to Koharu as Momoshiro started laughing. "You don't know me at all! Stop saying you do!"

"I don't know, Viper, maybe all those times you hit me, it was because you were afraid to trust me!"

As Kaidoh reached out to grab Momoshiro's shirt, Fuji called out to him from where he sat on one of the benches. "It's good to see you here, Kaidoh." His senpai smiled. "You're almost never at these courts."

"Yeah. Well." Kaidoh settled for giving Momoshiro a kick in the shins. Then he noticed the duck guy and ribbon guy were leaving one of the practice courts. "C'mon," Kaidoh growled to Koharu. "They're done. Let's play tennis." He wanted this over with.

"Tennis? Who said we were playing tennis?" Koharu grinned and opened his bulging tennis bag.

It was filled with water balloons.

"All right! Water balloon fight!" Kamio crowed and reach to take one.

"Oi, Kamio-kun," Koharu said, blocking his hand. "Not a balloon fight. Kaoru-chan likes to _train_. This is a training exercise."

Kaidoh stared into the bag. "Can't we play tennis?" he muttered.

"Nope! Don't have my racket! Come, Kaoru-chan!" Koharu heaved the bag over his shoulder and grabbed his wrist.

"Hey, you can borrow my-" the guy with the ribbon around his head started to say.

"Nope! Don't have my racket!" Koharu interrupted. He pushed Kaidoh to one side of the net and went to the other. He put the bag down and picked up a balloon. "The goal of this exercise is to see how far we can throw the balloon before it breaks."

"I know, idiot," Kaidoh said, walking a couple of steps closer to the net. "Let's get this over with."

"Ah, ah!" Koharu said, shaking his finger. "Too close! We're top athletes, Kaoru-chan. We can skip the preliminaries."

Rolling his eyes, Kaidoh backed up a few steps. "Whatever. Throw already."

Koharu's glasses glinted. "I hope you have soft hands." Then he threw the balloon.

Kaidoh was relieved when Koharu threw it in an easy, underhanded motion. The other boy was going to play fair and not just pelt Kaidoh. He caught the balloon and threw it back after taking a small step backwards.

Koharu caught it easily, still grinning. He started calculating out loud and Kaidoh was abruptly reminded of Inui-senpai.

"Taking into account the weight of the balloon, 62gm, and putting it over a distance of 7.25 meters, the height of the parabola of the throw should not exceed..."

"Throw already!" Kaidoh really wanted this over with so he could go on a run to dry himself. He didn't want his mother to ask uncomfortable questions about how he got wet.

"...3.2 meters." Koharu threw the balloon and Kaidoh caught it again. After stepping back, he heaved it, not really caring if it burst in Koharu's hands or not. He threw it a little too hard.

Koharu reach out and the balloon burst on impact. Instead of water, yellow paint splattered his hands, shirt, and the court.

There was a brief silence from everyone and then Kamio shouted, "Oh yeah! Paint ball fight!"

♥ ♥ ♥

When it was all said and done, only Koharu, Kaidoh, and the court suffered any damage. Momoshiro and Kamio had protested bitterly when Koharu had insisted that balloons were just for him and Kaidoh. Kaidoh had protested angrily the exercise, trying to use the messing up of the court as an excuse. Koharu had answered by saying the paint was water-based and he had brought sponges to clean the court later. When Kaidoh had flat-out tried to leave, Momoshiro had happily pushed him back onto the court, asking if Kaidoh was afraid of a little paint. The Koharu had began to talk about Kaidoh's sensitive soul again and Kaidoh couldn't leave.

Kaidoh looked down at himself. He was covered in yellow and green. It was starting to itch.

"Hey, Viper!" Momoshiro called from where he was playing Kamio on a different court. "You look like a big booger!"

"Shut up!" Kaidoh snapped, snatching his bandana off his head and scrubbing at one of his arms. All he succeeded in doing was spreading the green paint there around and getting his bandana dirty. "I never want to see you again," he said to Koharu, who had jumped over the net to his side of the court.

Koharu was grinning. He had yet to stop grinning all afternoon. Kaidoh didn't know how he hadn't gotten paint on his teeth. "But it was fun, Kaoru-chan!" His glasses were covered in yellow, the rest of him in big green and yellow splotches like Kaidoh.

"Have fun with your teammates and not me. Stay in Osaka."

"Aw, but they would've never done this with me. They would've never fallen for it. Well, maybe Kin-chan but he falls for everything." Koharu ruffled Kaidoh's hair, getting paint in it. "You're so gullible, Kaoru-chan, and cu-ute!"

Kaidoh swatted Koharu's hand. "Go away! Dammit, what am I going to do? I can't go home like this."

Fuji spoke up from where he was sitting. "You can wash up at the water faucet over there. And I believe there's a laundromat a couple blocks away." He was still holding his camera. Kaidoh was going to have to talk to Fuji later about the pictures his senpai had taken.

"Yep, there's a laundromat!" Koharu agreed.

Looking at him suspiciously, Kaidoh asked, "How do you know that? You don't live here."

"Not important." Koharu grabbed his arm and pulled him off the court to where his second tennis bag sat innocently. "Let's go get changed and get our clothes clean."

"Get changed..." Kaidoh stopped dead, pulling his arm away. He had a sudden, awful idea of what was in Koharu's second bag.

"As much as the view would be fant-ass-tic, we should wear _something_ while our clothes are being washed." Koharu opened the bag and pulled something out. Pulled something pink out. "I think that this is just your size!"

Kaidoh stared at the dress. It had a ribbon around the waist. "I won't."

"But Kaoru-chan," Koharu said, pulling out another piece of clothing triumphantly. "I have one that matches. We can be twins!"

Kaidoh's fists clenched and he didn't spend any time thinking about what he did next.

♥ ♥ ♥

Later, almost everyone who had been at the street courts had agreed that Kaidoh looked far better in his dress than Koharu did in his. The large bruise on his cheek that Koharu got from Kaidoh didn't quite go with the pink hue of the dress.

No pictures were supposedly taken, due to threat of death, but Inui Sadaharu may or may not be able to show you an enlightening page in one of his notebooks, if the price is right.

Kaidoh did not go out on any further "dates" with Koharu. Koharu retaliated by putting Kaidoh's name on the mailing lists of a staggering amount of women's clothing catalogs.  



End file.
